Thursday, 24 March 2016

Osmosis is an enterprising new release from Tafahum Records of music by Benjamin Ellin and Louai Alhenawi that brings a seamless and intuitive blending of Western and Arabic traditions

Tafahumwww.tafahum.orgis a
new, vibrant and first class fusion group bringing together a core of
outstanding, classically trained Eastern and Western musicians led by both
critically acclaimed British conductor and composer Benjamin Ellin www.benjaminellin.com alongside Syrian born Ney (Middle Eastern
flute) soloistLouai Alhenawiwww.facebook.com/L.Alhenawi .

Tafahum unites
composers, performers and audiences in repertoire that features new works,
adaptations of traditional folk music and cross genre collaborations between
other musical groups as well as other art forms.

The birth of Tafahum (Arabic
for ‘understanding’) came from a chance meeting between Ellin and Alhenawi. An
invitation to initially present Middle Eastern music workshops at Pembroke
Academy of Music in Walworth, London has developed into an expansive
collaborative artistic vision. Tafahum mirrors
the desire of both Alhenawi and Ellin to learn about each other’s musical
traditions, backgrounds and heritage in order to create imaginative, bold and
exciting projects that unite under the auspices of art and people.

Now from Tafahum
Recordswww.tafahum.orgcomes a new release of works by Benjamin
Ellin and Louai Alhenawi entitled Osmosis all performed by Tafahum.

Benjamin Ellin’s Wiladah
springs into life with some wonderfully exotic sounds and harmonies yet
with a grounding in the Western tradition. There are some great individual
sounds from the various instruments particularly the Qanun (a kind of zither).
The music moves through mellower, more gently flowing passages where these
players create very fine colours and textures, always retaining an underlying
rhythmic pulse. Part way there is a striking passage for piano and percussion
before the ensemble build the music through some very finely woven passages to
the conclusion.

Loulou is another
composition by Benjamin Ellin that opens
with a lovely theme, delicately harmonised before an Arabic flute emerges. This
simple little passage is soon pointed up by drums as the strings join to bring
a rich harmony with a subtly Arabic flavour. They move through some gloriously
textured passages sometimes quite delicately phrased before picking up a rhythm
with the French horn adding its sonority to lead to a gentle coda.

Louai Alhenawi’s Samai
Chromatic opens with pizzicato strings before a curiously flowing blend of
Western and Arabic styles moves ahead, bringing some ideas that are most
engaging, often entertaining in the rhythmically phrased passages. There is a
very fine blend of textures and sonorities as well as some lovely little wind
phrases before the music finds a syncopated rhythm as the music speeds to the coda.

Drums open Benjamin
Ellin’s Tim’s Fair before a riot of instrumental ideas arrives, full of energy.
Soon the strings bring a rather folksy theme underneath to which the drums keep
a rhythm before the entire ensemble join to add a fuller texture. An Arabic string
theme appears, as does a flute idea. When the whole ensemble returns to take
the music ahead, the horn comes in over them in as terrific passage. The music quietens
to a slow gently shifting passage that reduces at times to just piano and gentle
percussion. The slower shifting harmonies continue, with Ellin giving us the
most lovely Arabic touches before the music fades in the coda.

Louai Alhenawi’s Sufi
Mood opens slowly with an Arabic string motif over a held string chord.
Soon a rhythmic motif appears over which a longer breathed theme for horn flows.
As the ensemble come together Alhenawi develops a terrific blend of sounds,
quite beguiling, building through some particularly strong passages full of
fine Arabic influenced ideas.

Benjamin Ellin’s Three
Fishes Laughing opens on a long held violin note that rises and falls over
which the piano soon adds a motif. Eventually all the ensemble joins in the
theme with the strings continuing to bring surges of the longer held line. Drums
and percussion add a rhythm as a flute idea emerges and we are led through
passages of the most exquisite sonorities and colours, effused with subtle
melodic Arabic themes. It is a gentle long held string phrase that leads to the
coda.

The piano opens Benjamin
Ellin’s Crossing Green in a jaunty repeated idea to which abrasive textures
are added by the strings. The music slowly increases in tempo and dynamics as
the whole ensemble take the repeated theme forward, adding new textures and
ideas on the way. Soon the music quietens as a flute appears with a theme. We
are taken through some very fine passages with the most attractive blends of
instrumental sounds. Offset rhythms develop as slowly an Arabic inflection
arrives. The music drops to a little string motif against various instrumental details
creating a lovely passage before the piano’s repeated motif returns, interrupted
by other instrumental ideas, around which the wind sounds swirl to the coda.

This disc concludes with
Benjamin Ellin’s Sketching Jeffrey which opens with a very fine sonorous
theme for strings and winds, the horn sounding over the ensemble. Soon the sound
of the Qanun brings a rather timeless feel. Here we have the perfect fusion of
East and West as the horn, strings and Qanun blend in the most lovely passages.
The music suddenly rises up in a fast moving realisation of the theme, full of
exotic instrumental ideas and some particularly deep string textures. Later
there is a long breathed, flowing passage where Ellin brings the most lovely
sonorities. There are some particularly fine moments for wind instruments as
the music progresses with the Qanun bringing an evocative version of the theme
over a pulsating instrumental backdrop, soon taken by the horn with exotic
percussion ideas. Eventually the piano alone slowly picks out the theme before
a simple chord for strings ends the work.

This is an enterprising new release that brings seamless and
intuitive blending of traditions played by this terrific ensemble. They are finely
recorded at the Eastcote Studios, London. There are brief notes on the concept
of this recording.

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The Classical Reviewer has been involved in music for many years, as a classical record distributor, as a newspaper concert reviewer and writer of articles relating to music as well as reviewing for Harpsichord and Fortepiano magazine.

He assisted in the cataloguing of the scores of the late British composer George Lloyd and has co-authored a memoir of his friendship with the composer.

Having a particular interest in British music, he regularly undertakes talks on Elgar.

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